Verlander and Cabrera Have DIBS on Tigers Awards

by Ian Casselberry on Nov 16, 2009 12:05 AM EST in Detroit Tigers News

After a two-year hiatus, the Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes (or "DIBS") have reunited to nominate their choices for the top Detroit Tigers performers of the season

DIBS is a grouping of blogs and websites that cover the Tigers. The endeavor was originally created by Brian Borawski, Bill Ferris, and Ryan Sosin, who wanted to gather the various fans and writers producing non-traditional Detroit sports coverage online. There wasn't an awards vote last year, but Kurt Mensching wanted to get the band back together this year, adding the many new blogs and writers that now regularly contribute to the Tigers blogosphere. Kudos to him for taking this on.

The categories are for Hitter of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year, and Most Improved Player. And the winners are as follows:

Tigers Hitter of the Year: Miguel Cabrera

One of two unanimous choices in this year's voting, there was really no competition for this award. With a .324/.396/.547 average with 34 home runs and 103 RBIs, Cabrera put together a fine season overall. And on a team whose lineup struggled all year, those numbers stand out even more. No, it wasn't perfect. Cabrera seemed to disappear in several big games and series. And of course, there were the unfortunate events of October 3. But no one else was as consistent a threat throughout the year.

Tigers Pitcher of the Year: Justin Verlander

Once again, a unanimous choice. The Tigers wouldn't have been in a pennant race, let alone played in a one-game tiebreaker for the AL Central, without Verlander putting together a Cy Young Award caliber season. He led the majors in strikeouts (by a notable margin in the AL), and was one of four pitchers to finish with 19 wins. It was the dominant season expected of him, and had the Tigers' lineup provided better offensive support, those numbers would have been even more impressive.

Breakout Player of the Year: Rick Porcello

A 20-year-old rookie who was expected to pitch in Double-A to begin the season ended up the Tigers' second-best pitcher and the starter for their most important game of the year. If that's not a breakout season, what is? Porcello wasn't a unanimous choice, with votes going to Ryan Raburn and Edwin Jackson. And I understand those choices.. But at this time last year, I don't know if Porcello was even projected to be on the major league roster for 2009.

Most Improved Player: Justin Verlander

A jump from 11 wins to 19? A drop in ERA from 4.84 to 3.45? An increase of 39 innings pitched? And how about an increase in strikeouts from 163 to 269? Any of those improvements by themselves might have warranted Verlander getting this award. But he did all of the above. Verlander won 11 of 20 votes, with Fernando Rodney, Raburn, Brandon Inge, Brandon Lyon, Jackson, and Ramon Santiago also receiving consideration.

Each of the websites that participated in this year's DIBS voting are listed after the jump:

Bless You Boys -- Ian Casselberry
Daily Fungo -- Mike McClary
DesigNate Robertson -- Scott Rogowski
Detroit Tigers Den -- Austin Drake
Detroit Tigers Weblog -- Bill Ferris
Eye of the Tigers -- J. Ellet Lambie
Fire Jim Leyland -- Mike Rogers
It's Just Sports -- Patrick Hayes
Jamie Samuelsen's Blog (Freep.com) -- Jamie Samuelsen
Mack Avenue Tigers -- Kurt Mensching
The Cutoff Man (MLive.com) -- James Schmehl and Scott Warheit
Old English D -- Jennifer Cosey
Roar of the Tigers -- Samara Pearlstein
Spot Starters -- Blake VandeBunte
Take 75 North -- Matt Wallace
Tigers Amateur Analysis -- Erin Saelzler
Tigerblog -- Brian Borawski
Tiger Geist -- John Brunn
Tiger Tales -- Lee Panas
Tiger Tracks -- John Parent
Where Have You Gone, Johnny Grubb? -- Greg Eno

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Comments

What was the requirements on breakout player of the year for you guys

Just curious. Was there a minimum number of games, AB’s, innings?

I like the Porcello nod, but he was expected to be good, or at least, he had high expectations. I think the big breakout for the Tigers was Avila, potentially offering a guy who could fill that position for the next decade and potentially have a good bat at the same time. That said, maybe there was a minimum playing time requirement for you guys. Otherwise, Porcello is obviously a good nod, since he made a vast jump and was, for the most part, successful most of the year. My only concern, long run with Porcello, is that his sinker is so good that he doesn’t develop his secondary stuff. But that’s a tiny, tiny concern that isn’t even a factor at this moment (call it the Chien-Ming Wang concern, pre-injuries of the last 2 years).

On a side note, while he certainly doesn’t deserve to win any of these awards, Fu-Te Ni pleasantly surprised me this year. I had minimal expectations for him, and he exceeded them. Maybe he’ll come back to earth, but so far, so good.

by toonsterwu on Nov 16, 2009 12:21 AM EST reply actions

I think even if there wasn't a playing time requirement...

Avila still wouldn’t have gotten the award because of his lack of playing time. He spent far to much time on the bench to get an award. (this year at least)

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by madpoopz on Nov 16, 2009 6:11 AM EST up reply actions

Breakout player is typically synonamous with rookie of the year

but in the past not every year actually had a good rookie, while sometimes another early-career player would step up.

Just because many people expected Porcello to be good doesn’t mean he would be. He still had to go out there as a 20-year-old and record outs and win games. There’s still a gulf between “hyped prospect” and “effective major leaguer” and not every prospect can cross it. So I don’t think expectations should ever be taken into account there.

Even throwing out Porcello, Avila just didn’t play nearly enough for me to even consider voting for him. If he gets the playing time in 2010 and continues hitting like he did in August, he’d be a runaway winner, I’m sure.

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Nov 16, 2009 7:58 AM EST up reply actions

fair enough

was just wondering what the judging standards were, and as noted, Porcello’s a fine nod.

by toonsterwu on Nov 16, 2009 11:16 AM EST up reply actions

Avila definitely has a shot next year

I don’t think he got enough ABs to see if he could make adjustments to pitchers once they made the adjustment to him. Plus, he needs to be better at throwing out runners (27% is okay, but I’d like to see it closer to 35%, if not better). If he can do these two things next year, I can see a lot of votes going his way.

Tigers Amateur Analysis

by SabreRoseTiger on Nov 16, 2009 8:08 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

do people expect Avila's defensive ability, particularly

with throwing out runners to jump dramatically? I don’t recall, off the top, that Avila was viewed as a potentially dominant backstop. I thought he was viewed as a potentially solid bat, decent-solid defensive guy. I mean, while you’d like to see more than 27%, if his bat plays as expected, I think that’s a number you can live with, but tbh, I haven’t looked at any backstop data in ages.

by toonsterwu on Nov 16, 2009 11:18 AM EST up reply actions

Looking it up on Baseball-Reference

He was throwing out 44% in Erie at the time of his call-up. And that was through 82 games. I’m not sure if that’s a stat that necessarily translates to the bigs or not (I can’t see why it wouldn’t). I just personally prefer my catchers to be able to throw well because that helps out the pitching staff immensely (as Laird demonstrated this year). Avila just converted to catching his junior year of college, so it’s a position he’s still learning. His arm seems plenty strong enough, so it’s probably a matter of learning footwork, positioning, etc.

Tigers Amateur Analysis

by SabreRoseTiger on Nov 16, 2009 11:24 AM EST up reply actions

One additional note

He did have an alarmingly high number of passed balls in Erie (11). He had four more with Detroit. Blocking balls is probably another thing he should work on. That’s why I don’t think he’s quite ready to be a starter yet. Maybe by mid-to-late 2010.

Tigers Amateur Analysis

by SabreRoseTiger on Nov 16, 2009 11:27 AM EST up reply actions

He’s still new to this whole catching gig. I’d expect him to continue to improve a bit, though never to the point of being Gerald Laird back there or anything.

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Nov 16, 2009 12:56 PM EST up reply actions